Chichester, 19/04/02 

The BBC reports that in certain West Sussex schools lessons have been reduced to four days a week due to teacher shortages.  This measure, which will only last a month, is limited to those students who are not preparing for exams; the teachers available have been allocated to those classes that are preparing for exams.  Teacher shortages prove to be a recurring  problem in Great Britain.

Philadelphia, 18/04/02 

Some forty elementary and middle schools will be privatised due to their poor performance over the last several years, reports CNN.  Another twenty-eight will be trusted instead to the governance of the PTA.  These measures, which involve thousands of students, provoked much criticism from students and their families.

Charleville-Mézières, 16/04/02 

A good school guarantees everyone equal opportunities.  With these words the French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin defended the educational decisions of his government while visiting schools in Ardenne, incidentally the birthplace of Arthur Rimbaud. Jospin, reports France Presse, was accompanied by the Education Minister Jack Lang.

Hamburg, 15/04/02 

There is a disturbing rise in the German truancy rates.  The weekly Der Spiegel reports that in Germany in the year 2000 there were 87,000 youngster, practically 1 in every 10, who stopped going to school before graduating. There were 62,000 in 1992, and signs indicate that the trend is to be getting worse.  This phenomenon is particularly pronounced with young foreigners and immigrants.      

Edinburgh, 15/04/02

The Scottish Parliament is preparing a plan for permanent education.  The BBC reports that this plan will include the use of a “smart card” that will be issued after graduation from secondary school.  The card will be good for 6 years of additional instruction at any time in one’s life.  The commission thinks education is heading towards more flexible methods. 

Aubervilliers, 15/04/02

An anti-Semitic attack, one of many of such incidents in France, destroyed the minibuses of a Jewish school in Aubervilliers.  The AFP reports that the first to lend aid, in the form of a school bus, were the proprietors of a local Muslim hangout.  “An exemplary gesture, a bit of light in the dark,” commented the director of the Jewish institute.

Kinshasa, 13/04/02 

There have been several children among the many victims of the recent attack on the village of Ganga, in the eastern part of The Democratic Republic of Congo.  The country has been torn apart by years of  civil war.   MISNA reports its interview with the vice-commander of the United Nations Congo contingent General Roberto Martinelli: there were about 250 victims, most of them civilians.

Raleigh, 12/04/02

According to a study at the University of North Carolina, American students feel more at ease in small schools, whereas the number of students per class does not seem to influence their sense of security.  The AP cites a case from a Houston school in which 1900 students were divided into thirteen sections.  In their own section, the students developed a sense of identity.

Tananarive, 12/04/02 

The infant mortality rate in Madagascar is set to rise above its already unacceptably high level of 16%. The agency MISNA has raised the alarm and describes how the continuing lack of vaccines and drugs is linked to the political and institutional crisis in the country. Roadblocks and gasoline shortages are also hindering the distribution of food supplies.

Chicago, 11/04/02 

Educational authorities have shut down three schools because of poor results. One has been closed permanently but the other two could reopen in the fall of 2003 if they make substantial changes.  The students will be sent to other schools reports the Associated Press.  Many parents protested, preferring that the schools had been reformed and their children not transferred.

Kinshasa, 10/04/02 

The children of the Congo have seen their share of civil war, a thousand of whom embraced with enthusiasm the UNICEF initiative for peace in Kinshasa and Lubumbashi.  The youngsters, none of whom has ever seen a day of peace, sent their wishes for peace to the negotiators of both sides who have been in Sun City, South Africa for some time trying to end the conflict.

Brasilia, 07/04/02 

The House of Deputies has voted to abolish the curriculum of moral and civil education in Brazilian schools.  These lessons, reports the daily paper O Estado de S. Paulo, were introduced under military rule sometime ago to indoctrinate the youngsters.   These two subjects will be looked at in human and social science classes instead.   The measure will now pass to the Senate. 

Atlanta, 05/04/02 

Research conducted in 4500 secondary schools reveals that three American students in four think it is normal to resort to outside sources for their schoolwork, reports CNN. Of which, the Internet is now the mostly widely used. Schools are rushing to find ways to control schoolwork for electronic plagiarism.

London, 05/04/02 

Which is a better bet, the odds 7 to 1 or the odds 11 to 2? One fifth of English citizens, who typically aren’t passionate gamblers, don’t know how to respond to this question.   This reveals, reports the BBC, the general level of mathematical knowledge in England.  The situation is considered to be quite similar for the rest of Great Britain, despite what statistical problems there may be in extrapolating from this data.

Mexico City, 04/04/02 

According to a report from the magistrate’s office, school children are the primary targets of narcotic traffickers.  The largest population of drug dependants comes from those people between the ages of 18 and 34, most of which start using around the age of 10.  It is for this reason that the Mexican government has launched an anti-drug campaign in schools.

Trieste, 04/04/02 

Prof. Santino Spinelli taught his first lesson today on Gipsy culture and language at the University of Trieste, the first lesson of its kind in Europe.  Spinelli, who himself comes from these origins, graduated in Modern Languages from the University of Bologna.  His classes, reports the daily paper La Republica, are part of a course on multiculturism.

Kunduz, 03/04/02 

“I want to go to school and study in an American university even if I don’t know where America is, ” says Moujgan, an 11 year girl from Kunduz, Afghanistan, reports the France Presse.  Although the education of women has been reinstituted after the long Taliban rule, there are still many problems with space, methods, and organization.  Books have been furnished by UNICEF.